Tag Archives: Theresa Lyles

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University is a finalist in 10 categories of the 2018 Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ Digest Awards.

The winners will be announced at the eighth annual HBCU Awards ceremony to be held on June 22 in Washington, D.C.

TSU is a finalist for University of the Year, and TSU President Glenda Glover is in the running for Female President of the Year.

Other TSU nominations are:

Best Marching Band: Aristocrat of Bands

Best Student Organization: Collegiate Citizens Police Academy

Awards in Academic Excellence: Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center

Best Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) Program: College of Agriculture

Awards in Alumni Activity: James Shaw, Jr.

Female Athlete of the Year: Tia Wooten

Female Student of the Year: Theresa Lyles

Male Student of the Year: Naton Smith

Smith, a health science major from St. Louis, recently finished his freshman year with a 3.81 grade point average.

“I’m very honored to even be considered for this award,” says Smith, who was recently recognized as one of TSU’s “high achievers.”

The HBCU Awards is the first and only national awards ceremony honoring individual and institutional achievement at historically black colleges and universities throughout the country. Winners are selected by a panel of previous winners, journalist, HBCU executives, students and alumni for the merit of accomplishment and for generating positive coverage for HBCU campus communities.

More than 700 nominations were received for this year’s nomination process, an event record.

Last year, TSU’s Aristocrat of Bands and the university’s College of Engineering received top honors in the HBCU Digest Awards.

The year before that, TSU got three honors: Alumna of the Year, Dr. Edith Mitchell; Female Coach of the Year, Track and Field Director Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice; and Female Student of the Year, RaCia Poston.

In 2015, TSU’s women’s basketball team got Female Team of the Year, and student activities received Best Student Organization.

With more than 8,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 bachelor’s degree programs, 25 master’s degree programs and seven doctoral degrees. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.(TSU News Service) – Althoughborn more than 40 yearsapart, Theresa Lyles and her granddaughter Zuri Lyles were part of the same graduating class at Tennessee State University.

Theresa, 68, and Zuri, 22, walked across the stage to accept their degrees, when TSU held its spring undergraduate commencement in the Howard C. Gentry Complex on May 5. Theresa’s degree is in sociology, while Zuri received a bachelor’s degree in health information management and a minor in business.

Theresa Lyles, left, and Zuri Lyles may be the first grandmother/granddaughter graduating pair in TSU’s more than 100-year history. (Photo by Emmanuel Freeman, TSU Media Relations)

“I never contemplated this,” Theresa saidwhen asked about she and her granddaughter graduating atthe same time. “Who new that when I started back then that I would be graduating at the same time as she did.Nobodybut God.”

Theresa,agrandmother of 15, started at TSU in 1967,but dropped out in 1970 to raise her family. A little over a year ago, she came back to school without knowing she earned enough credits back then to put hercloseto graduating,until her academic advisers told her. Butafew months into her schooling,alongsideZuri, tragedy hit the family. Theresa lost her middle daughter, Zuri’s mother, on January 6.

“That hit us so hard that I almost dropped out because I was struggling and my grandmother went through a depression,” said Zuri. “But we kept encouraging each other. Through it all,we started working harder and did everything we needed to get the job done.”

Zuri, who has a job offer with St. Thomas General as an information systems analyst, said she plansto attend graduate school and get a degree in physical therapy.For now, Theresa will continue to help with raising her grandchildren, but she is glad to finally get her degree.

“I always wanted to come back,but just never had the chance to do it,” she said. “I am glad I did,and it’s even better that I am doing it with my granddaughter. We encouraged each other. It was tough,but we had to tunnel through.”

Said Zuri: “It feels amazing and life-changing for both of us” to be graduating at the same time.

This may just be the first time in TSU’s more than 100-year history that a grandmother and a granddaughter will be graduating at the same time.

Zuri is graduating with honors. Her ultimate goal is to start her own business.

With more than 8,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 bachelor’s degree programs, 25 master’s degree programs and seven doctoral degrees. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.